Wikipedia sulla Luna/FAQ

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The funny thing about the FAQ is that they are often published before people have even begun asking questions. So, they cannot really be so “frequently asked”. Maybe FAQ should rather be called “strongly anticipated”? Either way, here is where you will find the list of our initial questions about the Wikipedia to the Moon project. It’s a wiki, so please do feel free to add more questions to the FAQ. The Wikimedia Deutschland Communications team will be checking and answering them regularly. Here you begin:

È uno scherzo?

No. Siamo seri!

Chi c'è dietro tutto questo?

The Part-Time Scientists have been working on their Moon project since 2008. They have enlisted to the Google Lunar XPRIZE challenge. As the name suggests, the team started out as hobbyists. To this day, they are based in Berlin, working on their Moon rover, the landing module, trajectory, and a million other details. The team has grown to about a dozen people, now mostly working full-time as the project nears its finale. Their lead sponsor is Audi. They are also supported by a network of volunteer enthusiasts like former Apollo space program trajectory calculator Jack Crenshaw. The Part-Time Scientists have reached out to Wikimedia Deutschland, asking if the Chapter could arrange for preparing Wikipedia content for one 20 GB data disc. The main contacts at Wikimedia Deutschland for the Wikipedia challenge are Michael Jahn and Jan Apel, have a look at the About page.

Perché i Part-Time Scientists vogliono portare a Wikipedia sulla Luna?

Perché sono grandi fans di Wikipedia! Questo è il primo punto. Inoltre, andare nello spazio non solo è difficile, ma richiede anche lavoro di squadra ed efficienza. È per questo che le missioni spaziali partono con i csoddetti payload, nel senso che si combinano le risorse e si prendono a bordo tante cose quanto sia possibile, in maggioranza esperimenti scientifici. Il rover dei Part-Time Scientists porterà con sé un paio di esperimenti, ma c'è spazio anche per dei dati. Quando iniziarono a pensare a quali dati portare sulla Luna, Wikipedia era una ovvietà per loro. È come il Disco d'Oro del Voyager 1977, solo con maggiore conoscenza, più punti di vista culturali e più comunità. Piacerebbe loro vedere Wikipedia anche come una Stele di Rosetta, essendo una chiave di lettura dell'umanità all'inizio del terzo millennio.

Karsten Becker of the Part-Time Scientists claims: “I believe that Wikipedia has collected the most important human knowledge in a very structured way. This acts as a contemporary document. To take a copy of the human knowledge with us means to archive a moment in time. If you’ll take a look at Wikipedia in 10, 50 or 100 years, it will look totally different. We think it’s a good idea to store a decentralized back-up that no one can change so easily. And of course we’ll leave it there so that aliens who come by have something nice to read.”

Materialmente come ci va, Wikipedia, nello spazio?

The mission of the Part-Time Scientists includes much more than building the rover and driving it on the Moon. They will join a commercial space flight, e. g. a rocket launch to orbit. From there, their own lunar lander module will travel to the Moon, the final task being to land safely and release the rover. Actually, there will be two rovers, for redundancy reasons.

Perché non si può portare tutta Wikipedia sulla Luna?

Wikipedia è disponibile in quasi 300 lingue, per un totale di quasi 40 milioni di articoli. La Wikipedia in inglese da sola ha più dati di quelli che entrano nel supporto disponibile, un disco di dati fatto di ceramica.

Non si potrebbe utilizzare un altro supporto con più spazio?

The conditions in space prove hostile to many data mediums. Traditional CDs or DVDs would be destroyed in space, because they are composed of layers and would come undone. It’s different with a medium made of ceramics. Also, you have to consider the dimensions and weight of your medium. The ceramic disc is light enough and resilient.

Chi ci attendiamo che trovi il disco? Gli Alieni?

Probably not … but well, who knows? No, the Lunar challenge is mainly about pioneer spirit, curiosity, and visions for humanity. So, with the symbolic act of leaving a snapshot of human history on the surface of the Moon, we are thinking more about future generations than aliens. Maybe no one will ever find the disc, let alone be able to decipher it. But private space travel is only getting started, and maybe future generations will set foot on the Moon again, be it for touristic, scientific, business, or whatever reasons. Our very special Wikipedia time capsule will be there, as a historical document. And it will be special, indeed, because historical messages to the future have never before been worked on by so many people, representing so many cultures and perspectives on knowledge.

Come posso contribuire? / Come posso far parte del progetto?

Please edit! Basically, you will be able to contribute on-wiki to any phase of Wikipedia to the Moon, starting with the discussion of scenarios.

Serve un account Wikipedia per far parte del progetto?

As in all Wikimedia projects, it is recommendable to have a personal account, because being logged-in has many advantages when it comes to communication. However, you don’t need a personal account to participate in discussions. If you decide to not create/use a personal account your IP address will be displayed when saving an edit.

Quali sono le tappe del progetto?

If this is supposed to work as a community-driven process, we need to discuss first. What does it all mean? How should we move forward? This is phase 1, and it is open for contribution from day 1. Please discuss here. There need to be four phases altogether, because once you start a discussion you will always need to reach a conclusion, which we are planning to get in Wikipedia style, i. e. with a vote. The official part of curating the content for Wikipedia to the Moon will begin after that, in July 2016. Later that year, in the fourth and final phase, there will be time to deal with any issues or surprises that may or may not have come about in the process. The goal is to celebrate the International Volunteers Day on December 5 with our official time capsule. The rocket launch itself will not happen before Q4 of 2017, but payload needs to be prepared well in advance. For a detailled timetable see the About page.

Devo per forza scegliere una delle opzioni suggerite?

No, you can also suggest one yourself. This project is meant to be community-driven. Not all scenarios will convince everybody. A discussion is most welcome, and so are edits to outlined scenarios.

Quali lingue saranno incluse nel contenuto che andrà sulla Luna?

That will ultimately depend on which scenario the Wikipedia community agrees on. We can’t say before the community discussion and subsequent voting are finished. However, with knowledge in almost 300 languages, diversity is at the heart of the Wikipedia project. Its global use is part of what makes Wikipedia unique. As a message to future generations it makes a lot of sense to strive for broad representation, doesn’t it?

Perché è la lingua inglese quella predefinita di questo sito?

Meta-Wiki makes it possible for Wikipedians to contribute via their Single User Login. Since the project is designed to first discuss the basic ideas and get feedback, Meta-Wiki is a better choice than any of the language versions of Wikipedia. Language skills are always an issue with global discussion, because whichever language you choose, this will put some users in a better position to participate than others. The default language of Meta-Wiki is English, but the translation extension enables anybody to add page translations. Please feel free to translate! However, it will be impossible to translate ongoing discussions, because potentially every Wikipedian in the world may take part in the discussion and the volume of feedback cannot be followed simultaneously in many languages.

Cosa farà il rover del disco dati, una volta che sarà sulla superficie della Luna?

The disc may either remain with the rover, because it needs to be firmly secured/installed for the landing procedure, or it may be dropped to the surface. There is no final decision yet, because engineering needs to be considered.

Cosa è previsto per la missione, a parte la questione Wikipedia?

The main challenge for the Part-Time Scientists is to land their rover safely, then move it at least 500 m and send images to earth. Their payload includes a number of scientific experiments like a small box in which plant growth under space conditions will be analyzed. Furthermore, it is planned to repeat an experiment from an earlier Apollo mission, double-checking results from a soil analysis.

Che ruoli hanno Audi e Google in questo progetto?

There are several X Prize challenges, of which Google has created the Lunar challenge. Google is basically hosting the competition. They are not involved with what the project teams are doing. Audi, on the other hand, is the lead sponsor of the Part-Time Scientists. They have been working together for years on the rover design and technical aspects. You can visit their own joint mission website. There is no connection to our own Wikipedia challenge. The Part-Time Scientists have offered one data disc to us because they love Wikipedia. Neither Google nor Audi are involved in how we approach our Wikipedia challenge.

C'è una data di lancio?

Yes, probably Q4 2017. The Part-Time Scientists are in the process of finalizing the exact launch window. However, the Wikipedia anniversary year ends in December 2016 and any payload needs to be prepared and confirmed well in advance.

Dobbiamo pagare per avere Wikipedia a bordo?

No. It’s a gift, no strings attached.

Che succede se alla fine il rover dei PT Scientists non riesce a raggiungere la Luna?

Incrociamo le dita che tutto vada come previsto| Ma se qualcosa va storto, ci potrebbero essere molte cause. È scienza missilistica, del resto. Anche dopo un buon fine del lancio del razzo ci potrebbero essere un milione di cose che potrebbero andare in malora. È un'avventura, quindi possiamo solo sperare per il meglio. La cosa peggiore che potrebbe succedere, tuttavia, è che la missione per la Luna non parta o fallisca. Se noi, intesi come Comunità globale di Wikipedia, raggiungiamo il nostro obiettivo e prepariamo la nostra capsula del tempo, beh, quella resterà a disposizione per qualsiasi occorrenza. Il contenuto di Wikipedia è rilasciato con licenza libera. Il nostro lavoro resterà lì per essere portato nello spazio da futuri viaggiatori. E forse la Luna è solo un punto di partenza. Come dice Karsten Becker dei Part-Time Scientists, "io ho sempre voluto andare su Marte. Ma la Luna va benissimo come primo passo nei viaggi spaziali".

What kind of data disk is it, technically? How long will the disk last on the moon before the solar wind destroys it?

The disc that will be sent to the moon will be made out of a special ceramic which will last in space for 1000 years. Unlike CD’s and Blue Rays, which are composed of plastic layers which unglue in space, the composition of the ceramic disc makes it much more resistant to the conditions beyond earth's atmosphere.